ISLAMABAD: Featuring some 600 artists, the Islamabad Art Festival (IAF) will kick off from Monday at the Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA).

Addressing a press conference at the Serena Hotel on Friday, organisers claimed that the festival is expected to engage at least 500,000 audience of diverse backgrounds and ages.

The organisers said the over 200 artists would participate in the festival from 34 countries and approximately 400 from across Pakistan.

The festival has been organised by a consortium of public and private educational institutions, art galleries and artist associations from across Pakistan.

Led by former PNCA director general and chief curator Jamal Shah, IAF-19 is a collaborative project and will be hosted in several locations in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, including museums, art galleries, educational institutions and public parks.

The festival will continue till Nov 30. The thematic focus of IAF-19 is a ‘dialogue between tradition and modernity’.

Serena Hotels has sponsored the Islamabad Art Festival. Organisers claimed that it is for the first time that expression of almost all forms of art will be showcased together. Painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, textile design, dance, music, film, puppet shows, theatre, fashion design and performing arts from across the world will be available to satisfy the cultural aesthetic of people in general.

Simultaneously, literature from different lands is also a key focus of the festival.

An International Literary Conference is being held in the ambit of the festival. Discussants will comprise prominent writers and poets from about 20 Asian and African countries.

They will assemble under the banner of a three-day ‘International Writers Conference-Islamabad 2019’.

According to the organisers, their deliberations and poetry recital sessions will engage literature and academia circles to promote understanding of the cultures from different parts of the world.

All these art forms are being presented in venues open and accessible to the public.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2019